Salmon Fishing Luck

By Jock Monteith 16th May 2023

In salmon fishing regardless of how technically gifted you are with a fly rod or how good a beat you're fishing there's always an element of luck involved in catching a salmon. Opportunities to hook and land salmon are like moving targets that appear and disappear throughout the course of most fishing days and even if they don't always seem apparent they always do exist.

What Often Makes A Salmon Ready To Take A Fly

A subtle barely noticeable temperature lift around mid morning during the cold early Spring months, a shift northwards in barometric pressure, an alert running fish that's briefly paused in the pool or the smell of fresh water in a salmon's nostrils following significant rainfall in the headwaters are a few of the more obvious factors that can put a fish in the right frame of mind to take a fly. My advice on this based on decades of 'observant' riverbank experience is to never allow your head or enthusiasm levels to go down as salmon are indeed also true masters of surprise!

Perfect Your Salmon Fly Presentation

Obviously if you're able to read a salmon pool effectively and work out where the best taking areas will be based on the prevailing water conditions that's going to help matters. Fishing your salmon fly down through the pool in a measured and methodical manner is also going to help you to get lucky! Knowing how to set the hook effectively will also allow you to capitalise on a 'take' rather than squander it like many salmon fly fishers still do every season.

Being In The Right Place At The Right Time

At the end of the day in salmon fishing there's a lot to be said for simply being in the 'right place at the right time' even though having a good understanding of the relative fishing skills are also important to get you into that exact moment in the fishing day! I was watching a salmon fisher's youtube video recently just knowing the fish he was playing was going to come off and sure enough it did so grasping the basics of how to properly play a fish is a vital skill too. Understand the important components of the game you're playing and make sure you can not only get to the point where you know exactly how to set the hook effectively but you can also play a salmon correctly.

Learn To Effectively Fish For Salmon

In addition to that sometimes required little bit of luck there's no real point in investing in the correct salmon fishing equipment levels and buying often expensive fishing access to quality salmon beats without fully understanding the basic salmon fishing skills that are needed. Competence in this fine pursuit is gained from often subtle riverbank observations gained over time which plays a big part of the overall salmon fishing fascination for many. Learning these basic yet very important salmon fishing skills should be a top priority for any salmon fisher to bring them to the point where they finally find themselves in front of a taking salmon and know exactly how to 'make it count' with clinical precision!

For More Salmon Fishing Tactics Information

This website's sister site has a new search directory for 'Questions & Answers' regarding various different salmon fishing topics & tactics. While the sister site design & content is fairly new and still very much a 'work in progress' there's already much useful content that could assist Scottish salmon fishers to gain additional 'edge' in this fabulous pursuit. Follow this Salmon Fishing Portal link to access this new salmon fishing information source.